


Yellow Fever

by olivemartini



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff, One-Shot, Romance, Yellow Fever, insecure, scared, supernatural oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-12
Updated: 2015-04-12
Packaged: 2018-03-22 11:35:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3727366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if the ghost fever (yellow fever) comes back, only this time, Dean isn't the one it affects?  Instead, it infects Melanie, who prides herself on being one of the toughest hunters around, despite being a girl.  For her, it's the most embrassing day of her life-but can Sam Winchester help her through it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yellow Fever

It had been, to put it simply, the shittiest day of her life. Melanie couldn't remember a time when she had been more embarrassed. She prided herself on being tough, but here she was, basically fainting into Sam's arms every other second. Melanie's been so used to saving people, she's never had to play the damsel in distress- and she hates it.  
From the beginning, Sam and Dean knew what was wrong with this town. They said it was ghost disease, one that starts out with anxety, and continues until you're at full scale terror, and eventually your heart stops from the fear. She didn't listen when they warned her not to get to close to the bodies, said that's it highly contagious, but she only smirked and told them that she had a strong immune system. She wanted to go back and slap herself. Strong immune system? She got a cold every two weeks! So there she was, in the morgue, touching the open sores on the cadever's hands. (Which, five hours later, her mind deemed horrifying, causing her to scrub at her skin until she bled, and couldn't stop until Sam dragged her away from the sink.)  
It took them a while to figure out what was wrong with her. Melanie wasn't sure why, it was such an abrupt change in character, it should have been obvious. Normally, she was loud, and reckless, and even Dean's driving was too cautious. Normally she wears clunky combat boots and mutiple piercings, and isn't afraid to walk into a bar, do five shots (or fifteen), and then leave with a man she had met three seconds before. Normally, she's able to make up a completely bullshit lie on the spot, or perform some daring, impossible feat to get them out of a bad situation. But now, she's buckling her seat belt, stuttering over her words, unable to look anyone in the eye, horrified at the prospect of lying to real federal agents, and is actually worrying about her hair.  
Right now, she's being SUCH a girl.  
The worst thing, though, was being around Sam Winchester. It's easy to ignore personal feelings when you're brave and fearless and able to hide your emotions. But its not so easy when you blush every time he looks at you, suddenly worried that he finds you ugly. It's not easy to hide when you jump into his arms at every loud noise, when you bury your face in his shoulder every time you get scared. Its not easy when the boys teasing actually gets you flustered. Judging by the looks Sam and Dean were giving each other, they knew something was up, but hopefully they didn't know what. Apparently, when Melanie is out of her mind terrified, her "little crush" on Sam developes into something borderline obsessive.  
Compared to the three things that happen next, however, that's nothing.

The first thing:  
Everyone knows a sign of anxiety is to have nervous habit. Apparently, her nervous habit was to claw at herself until her skin rips open. Which isn't bad, except for the fact that she panicked.   
Melanie was always a little squeamish around blood. Normally she'd be able to push that disgust down and stitch up her wound, or clean up the mess, but today, she couldn't handle it. Not the pain, not the bright crimson covering her arms, not the disgusting knowledge that she's doin this to herself. She could only give a little squeak of horror and rush to the bathroom, turning the water to a scalding temperature and scrub. And scrub. And scrub. Soon, the sink was tinged pink, and the bubbles were red, and the soap stung, but she just kept going.   
Until Sam came in.  
"Melanie?" He let the bag fall to the ground with a thud, hovering uncertainly in the doorway, with Dean beside him. They both stared at her questioningly. "What are you doing?" Sam was talking slowly, like a sudden movement would send her running.   
In her head, she was going to calmly explain the situation. In her head, it wasn't a big deal. In her head, she could just pull her hands away from the sink, bandage her hands, and try to pretend like it didn't happen. What came out was a shriek of, "I need to get the blood off! I-Need-it-OFF!" She began scratching with a renewed vigor.  
"Hey. Hey!" Sam rushed forward, grabbing her wrists and pulling them out of the water. Her hands were bright red, with blood smeared all over her skin. She could feel the stinging where she rubbed the skin raw, but all she could focus on was getting the blood off. Even though she was held tight by Sam, she squirmed towards the stream of water. "Mel, look at me. Calm down. We're going to clean you up, okay? We're gonna get the blood off. Don't worry." He turned the water to a cooler temperature, and put her hand underneath, gently rubbing soap into the sores.   
He kept up a steady stream of chatter, but she couldn't focus on what he was saying. All she could think of was how close he was to her, and how good he smelled. All she felt was his hands over hers, all she heard was the steady hum of his voice. And it was pathetic. She was pathetic.   
It wasn't until he was putting on the final bandage, with her perched on the countertop adn him standing between her legs that she was calmed down enough to speak. "I'm so sorry you have to deal with me. You shouldn't h- I mean, this shouldn't... I should be brave enough to deal wih a little blood."  
He smiled, shaking his head. "It's not your fault. It's the disease. Besides, I don't mind." He leaned in to whisper in her ear, like he was telling her a huge secret. "You're cute when you're scared."   
She might have kissed him right there, with blood on her arms and struggling not to fall in the sink, but she couldnt. She was too worried, too scared (surprise, surprise). So instead, she slid off the counter and brushed past him, trying to ignore the slightly crestfallen look on his face. 

The second thing:  
She didn't mean to say it. It's not like ever cared about how she had looked before. Sam had seen her bleeding to death, Sam had seen her vomit all over the bathroom, Sam had seen her fresh out of the shower, first thing when she wakes up, had seen her look as pretty as was humanely possible for her to look. IT's not like her cared about her hair, either, or the clothes she wore (great for fighting, and certainly looked good on her, but not the social norm). Normally, she wouldn't have said anything, but that day, normal had left the building.  
"Do you..." She started, and almost faltered, but Sam turned to look at her with his brown eyes, and she oopened her mouth again. "Are these clothes okay? Like, is my hair fine? I don't know about going out in public, I look horrible, maybe I should just.... stay here."  
There were a few girls across the court yard staring at the two of them. They were looking Sam up and down like he was a particularly tasty piece of meat, but when their eyes moved to her, their noses wrinkled in digust. "I mean, look at them, those girls over tehre are so pretty. I bet you and Dean would like me more if I looked more like them." (Her only saving grace was at that moment, Dean was on a coffee run, so it was only Sam listeing to her self deprecation.)  
"What are you talking about?" Sam looked over in surprise. "Dean and I love you. Besides, you look amazing every day. Why the sudden interst?"  
"Ghost disease thing." Melanie grumbled, kicking a leaf with the toe of her boot. "And, I don't know, I thought you might be interested in me if I looked more like those bimbos."  
"Melanie..." He said slowly, a smile forming on his face. "Do you like me?"  
Melanie felt panic bubble up inside her, keeping her from answering, but she still stared at him like a deer caught in the headlights. She had time to think "he doesn't like me back, he's maing fun of me, this is just pity" and "do you like me, what a freaking middle school thing to say." Thankfully, Dean came back, stopping her from answering.

The third thing:  
"You didn't have to stay with me, you know." Melanie said the words, but it was obvious to Sam that they were a lie. She was shaking like a leaf in the wind, unable to look anyone in the eye, and had burst into tears three time in the past two hours.   
"Right." Sam didn't look up from his book, but she heard his smirk. "Someone had to make sure you didn't shred thorugh your hands while washing up for dinner." The teasing fell a little flat, and the silence continued. Dean had gone off with Bobby to hunt the ghost, becuase everyone had agreed that Melanie needed a babysitter. As much as she hated it, she was glad Sam was here. It was only his presence that let her lay down on the old motel bed and close her eyes.  
A few hours later, she woke with a start to a clap of thunder that shook the building. She screaming, curling into herself, and burst into tears before she got her bearings. Sam was by her in under a second, arms around her and muttering "it's okay, I'm here, everythings fine" into her ear.  
"I'm sorry." She gasped out. "I'm fine now. Thank you. I'm fine."  
"Are you sure?" He fixed his brown eyes on her, already getting up from the bed.  
"Positive." Her voice was still shaking. He started to move away, but she grabbed his arm. "B-but could you, maybe, stay here with me? Just, lay down until I fall asleep?"  
"Yeah. Of course." He said the words with authority, but Malnie thought he looked a little hisitant to get under the covers. It wasn't until the next rumble of thunder that he put his arm around her, pulling her close. She was embarrassed, but it'd have to happen in order for her not to burst into tears. "Just go to sleep, Mel. I've got you. Nothing'll hurt you while I'm here."  
And she believed him.

The next morning, they woke tangled up in each other, his chin on her head, Sam's armd around her, her hand cluthcing his arm like a lifeline. Their legs were tabgled together, and their shirts had rode up a little bit. Dean and Bobby had giving them both knwoing glances, and had teased her quite a bit over yesterday (their favorite moments being when she saw a spider on the floor and stood on the table for an hour, or when Dean ran over a pothole and she screamed like they were dying), but they let it go. She knew that Sam had stood behind her back and glowered at them until they shut up, and she was thankful for it.  
"There's my brave girl." Sam said, coming up to her. Dean was turning in the keys to the room, so they were both waitin by the impala. "I'm glad you're back."  
She groaned. "I'm so embarrassed over that. I can't beliee I did all that." She turned to look at him. "Thank you."  
"It was nothing."  
"I mean it. I mean, I'm sure it freaked you out a bit. I should have beeen able to bandage my own hands, and I shouldn't have made you go through the whole 'does this make me look fat' thing, and I definitely shouldn't have gotten upset over a thunderstorm."  
"I didn't mind the thunderstorm part. That was particularly enjoyable for me."   
"You liked me being scared?" I grinned at him, but he frowned.  
"That's not what I meant." He sighed, raking his hands through his hair. "You know, for a moment yesterday, I thought you liked me."  
The panic bubbled up in her throat again-apparently that reaction wasn't part of the spell. "Oh?"  
"I mean, the whole asking if I thought you loked nice- which you do, by the way, you're beautiful- and the sleeping together- and I liked having you in my arms, although I seriously wished you weren't that terrified, I just hoped... Maybe I was delusional, but I could have sworn yesterday you almost kissed me." He looked over at her, but couldn't meet her eyes.   
"I wanted to. But I got scared." She was terrified now, too- maybe she got scred a lot more than she let herself admit. "Worried you didn't like me back and all."  
He grinned. "You worry too much."   
The response baffled her, so she did the only thing she could think of. She kissed him.

Maybe, she thought later, as she and Sam sneaked glances at each other in the rearview mirror, the whole ordeal wasn't as embarrassing as she thought. It's okay to be scared sometimes, especially when Sam winchester is by your side.


End file.
